The rich lister, the Vogue editor and the big bet on sex toys

Lisa Hili, left, and former Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements are betting the there is a market for boudoir goodies for the upmarket lady.
Louise Kennerley

by
Fiona Carruthers

Call it a business proposition with a twist.

When former Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements and her ex fashion magazine colleague Lisa Hili pitched a stake in their upmarket lingerie and 'intimate accessories' e-commerce business to Melissa Karlson, (daughter of Rhonda Wyllie as in Perth's rich lister Wyllie Group property and investment family), Karlson had to first suppress a fit of the giggles.

"I'm a 39-year-old mum of two – very much of the generation where you'd only think of [vibrators] once a year, if that – really only as a bit of a joke at a hen's night to give the girls a laugh," Karlson explains. "If I had to describe myself, I'd say I'm more ten shades of grey than fifty."

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Karlson and Jamie, her fashion wholesaler husband, have been quietly investing in small Australian retail businesses over the past few years, including Stacey Surfboards in Queensland.

In this case, the bottom line figures caught their eye; lingerie sales hit $40 billionworldwide in 2016 – with Australia accounting for $1.9 billion of those sales – according to British analysts, the Hewson Group. Their 2013 report, 'Women, Sex and Shopping', says 100 million women own sex toys and intend to keep buying them.

"My mum [Rhonda Wyllie] was a bit shocked when I told her we were financing this," Karlson laughs. "I said: 'Mum, you don't have to be an end-user to back something. We invested in surfboards – but we don't surf."

Adds Karlson with a tinge of envy: "Young women today are so liberated. They have the maturity and confidence to just 'own it' – if they want to purchase a sex toy, they're not giggling, they're out buying it."

Clements joined the company this year, where Hili had created Porte-à-Vie back in 2015. The idea was a beautifully presented online shopping site for women and their partners to shop in privacy for the finer things in life; from silk kimonos, French hosiery and high-cut lace teddies to satin bras, lace cloth handcuffs, plus 50 different models of vibrators, priced from $30 to $600, including 'Crave', which is worn as a pendant necklace in silver, yellow or rose gold, priced from $100 to $300.

"The discrete shopping environment and beautifully curated range of local and international labels are our key points of difference," says Clements. "Women want a tasteful, relaxed environment in which to select their lingerie and intimate accessories. They don't want to have to go into some dark, dimly lit sex shop in a sleazy backstreet and sift through all the tacky stuff to find what they want."

Clements and Hili credit popular culture – such as Sex in the City's famous 1998 'The Rabbit' episode (when Charlotte becomes addicted to a Vibratex Rabbit Habit vibrator), and Fifty Shades of Grey's more recent attempts to glamourise slightly unorthodox bedroom antics using masks and the like – as being instrumental in driving changing attitudes towards the use of safe intimate accessories for women from naughty to nice, not to mention the much-hyped health benefits.

"When I was thinking about this as a business idea a few years ago, I kept noticing things were changing: you could even buy vibrators in Priceline!" says Hili, adding "for most women, these toys are now about tapping into good feelings and well-being. The old attitudes have shifted."

This is Clements' first foray into business since she departed Vogue Australia in 2012 after 27 years with the title, including 13 years as editor. Another big hitter in fashion, David Bush, who was former Head of Fashion at David Jones (where he worked for almost 25 years before leaving in 2012 has been appointed a director of Porte-à-Vie.

Since the Karlsons provided a cash injection for the company a few months ago, the Porte-à-Vie range has been expanded, and the website re-skinned with a decadent campaign shot by Australian photographer Pierre Toussaint

The new e-commerce site will go live on December 6– just in time for Santa to bag some Christmas stocking fillers. But no giggles please.